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Presented by:
Ashanti Monts-Tréviska, Gabriel Perrusquia, and Ali Hamar

Audience: Community, Educators, Human Rights / Social Justice Professionals, Young Adults (14+)        Workshop capacity: 100

We will be presenting some historical references to guide people to see the interconnection between hearing supremacy and white supremacy. Also will share some historical background of Deaf schools experiencing segregation to highlight the emergence of Black American Sign Language (BASL), the influence of Indigenous Sign Language has on American Sign Language (ASL) and the harmful effects of language deprivation have on BIPOC Deaf communities. We will be presenting some of the living tools to guide the hearing participants to acknowledge how their hearing privilege can unintentionally harm a BIPOC Deaf community member in their social justice spaces or in general spaces. We will be providing some reflective activities to gain the living tools with intercultural accountability to challenge hearing supremacist and white supremacist attitudes.

The presentation will guide the community members to actualize that being moderates (feeling that indirect experience of oppression does not apply to them and being comfortable with their unconsciousness of reproducing the cycles of harm towards underrepresented communities) is more than harmful to diverse communities through the cultural-linguistic lens. Building one sided solidarity is one of the Master’s tools that cannot be used to fight for whole liberation of humanity.

Rev Dr. King was very open to new ideas and was willing to build solidarity across communities. His stance on solidary is the most misrepresented and misunderstood. Our proposed presentation will highlight on how it is equitably important to do the anti-oppression work, not just antiracist work alone.

We genuinely hope this proposed presentation will reframe people’s minds about their deficit attitudes towards BIPOC Deaf community co-leaders and non-BIPOC activists working to dismantle racism in Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind and DeafDisabled communities. Also to empower and inpower the participants to fully acknowledge their privilege whether they are BIPOC or not BIPOC.

Ashanti Monts-Tréviska [They, Them] As a Florida native, Ashanti M-T embarked on a long journey as an abstract critical thinker while appreciating ancestral wisdom. With Master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology earned in 2015, Ashanti found themselves constantly working on de-internalizing self through mindfulness and inner creativity. Ashanti is the founding steward of a social enterprise, Cascadia Deaf Nation, which is cooperatively owned by BIPOC Deaf community members of Cascadia bioregion (BC, WA and OR) in Washington State. Ashanti is currently working to be a certified Mindfulness Instructor and a certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP). Ashanti aims to complete their Ph.D dissertation by 2023.

Gabriel Perrusquia [He, Him] I was born and raised in Chicago, IL as a first generation Mexican American. I currently live in the south suburb of Seattle, WA. My parents moved to the US for a better quality of life. They eventually found out I am Deaf when I was two years old. I graduated with AAS degree in Art from National Technology Institute of the Deaf (NTID) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I decided to not pursue further due to lack of resources for BIPOC Deaf Community members including myself. To gain insight of what’s out there. I decided to move to Seattle from Chicago five and half years ago after holding down part time jobs.

I am passionate about art growing up. I explored art including colors paper, oil paint, argyle paint, chalk, clay, mosaic, glass, graphic design, photography, and printer.  I lost my motivation. I became interested in learning about social justice vocabulary and how the systems of oppression foster language deprivation in BIPOC Deaf communities.

I am a Steward with Cascadia Deaf Nation where stewards and I are working on different projects and service to empower BIPOC Deaf community members to thrive Cascadia bioregion (BC, WA, and OR).

Ali Hamar [She, Her] Community Advocate in collaborating with community members especially Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Deaf-Blind and Deaf Plus. Expertise in Deaf mentor, Early Language Advocacy, and Early Language Intervention. Interests: Reading, Hiking, Traveling, Creative Writing, Graphic design and hanging out with friends.